ComoNExT: not only start-ups

An Innovation Hub of companies of different sizes and sectors that share the same propensity for innovation and share tools and methods to start and consolidate their own their growth path. This is ComoNExT.

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ComoNExt

by Virna Bottarelli |

The former Somaini cotton mill in Lomazzo is home to an Innovation Hub. ComoNExT, an Innovation Hub that officially opened its doors to the first companies in 2010 and that since 2013 has certified its incubation activity according to the criteria of the "Innovation Hub". MiSE. ComoNExT brings together around 135 companies from different sectors and of various sizes. From start-ups, which account for about a quarter of the total, to multinationals and listed companies, the companies that ComoNExT brings together have one thing in common: innovation.

Maria Cristina Porta, Head of Incubation and Open Innovation, explains: "ComoNExT - Innovation Hub was inaugurated in 2010 on the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce of Como and thanks to an emblematic contribution from Fondazione Cariplo, with the aim of fostering the relaunch and competitive development of the area, promoting the culture of innovation. ComoNExT has acquired and breathed new life into the structure of the original and historic Cotonificio Somaini, a late nineteenth-century building of great historical and architectural value, whose redevelopment has given concrete form to the desire to redevelop the structure and the surrounding area".

ComoNExT is itself part of several networks and is now a well-known Innovation Hub. "Partnerships and participation in various programmes, events and initiatives at national level give us good visibility and there are many spontaneous applications from companies asking to be set up in our Hub". ComoNExT also carries out an intense activity involving secondary school and university students on the theme of self-entrepreneurship.

Industry 4.0 and digital transformation

Attracting innovative companies, transferring innovation to the territory and fostering the development of new entrepreneurship through the incubation of start-ups are the three objectives of ComoNExT. The technology transfer model that has been studied, developed and adopted is called NExT Innovation and allows all the skills and innovative solutions developed by ComoNExT companies to be brought to companies outside the park, in order to encourage the adoption of technology, competitiveness and innovation by the entire business system, particularly SMEs.

From the point of view of technologies and application sectors, the reference is to industry 4.0. Industry 4.0However, the technological solutions identified are applicable to a broader spectrum of sectors: manufacturing in the broadest sense, large-scale distribution, biomedical, agri-food, to name but a few. The theme of Industry 4.0, together with that of Digital Transformation, is at the heart of the "Innovation RumpUp" service, a path of knowledge and accompaniment dedicated to external companies that approach ComoNExT to bring them into contact with new technologies and understand together how to adopt them, to help them deal with change and understand the digital dynamics that drive innovation in the company.

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Pathways to innovation

In operational terms, ComoNExT initially welcomes companies to the Innovation Hub and accompanies them on two days of technology knowledge by experts and contact with companies that illustrate their development or adoption: a true moment of encounter and dialogue.

The second phase consists in a deeper knowledge of the host company by a specially trained ComoNExT Team, which visits the company, analyses its products, processes and methods in order to carry out a macro-analysis and suggest possible actions to be taken in order to innovate, adapt to Industry 4.0 criteria and maintain a good competitive level.

With this analysis the company will then decide whether to take advantage of ComoNExT's expertise to proceed along the path of adopting one or more of the proposed solutions. For the first two phases described above, companies based in the province of Como or Lecco can make use of a voucher covering 50% of the value of the intervention, made available by the Como-Lecco Chamber of Commerce and local associations. "When joining the network, the company signs the NExT Innovation pact, becoming an active part of the model and mapping the available skills with the ComoNExT Opportunity Managers. From this moment on, all support opportunities for marketing, project finance and communication activities - to name but a few - are available".

From a geographical point of view, the area ComoNExt addresses has no borders: "Our action stems from an enrichment of the territory that generated us, but the desire is to make the value of this knowledge available to all companies outside the Hub. And so it is happening: companies from all over Italy are approaching ComoNExT. At the request of three territories in particular (Novara, Ivrea and Caserta) we have launched projects to replicate the model: we study the territories and their vocations to adapt the application of NExT Innovation to those places".

The INNExT model

The incubation, which is aimed at ideas or start-ups that have been established for less than 18 months, lasts for a maximum of one year. Requests for meetings for preliminary assessment are always possible via a form on the website. A special opportunity is the annual call for proposals from the Como-Lecco Chamber of Commerce, which offers 5 incubation paths worth 20,000 euros each, a voucher to reimburse expenses for the workstation and tutoring at ComoNExT. "We are a MiSE-certified incubator, so our logistical characteristics and skills are measured very carefully and critically by the Ministry. On this basis, the INNExT model was developed: the combination of inclusive elements in the Innovation Hub and extensive elements in the ComoNExT network, i.e. a set of internal and external opportunities, but always favoured by our hub. The startup, by signing the NExT Innovation pact, can benefit from market activities even before having completed its core business, access networking activities within the Innovation Hub and benefit from services and experimentation in the Demonstrator Diffuse Factory (Industry 4.0) and NExT Marketing Lab (technologies related to neuromarketing) laboratories. In addition, there are the opportunities that ComoNExT offers with respect to its own network: the incubated startup can benefit from the possibility of co-incubation paths at other incubators, exchanges with companies in the areas of replication, industrial acceleration, thanks to contact with corporations with a view to open innovation, financial acceleration from venture capital or corporate venture capital, contacts with the international network at the level of European projects and science park associations".

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